Warren a suspect in shooting of 'The Mole'

FORMER soldier Joe Warren was a key member of the gang led by Eamon 'The Don' Dunne and Alan 'Fatpuss' Bradley and was arrested after the attempted shooting dead of Traveller criminal Anthony 'The Mole' McDonagh.

Also in this section

Warren was a major target for gardai for years before 'The Don' was gunned down and continued to be heavily involved in organised crime even after his boss was shot dead in 2010.

Ballymun-man Warren was yesterday convicted of conspiring with slain gangster Dunne and four other criminals to raid a cash-in-transit van in Kildare.

He was on bail for the botched 2007 job when officers from the Special Detective Unit caught him with 31 rounds of ammunition in Ballymun, in 2009. He will be sentenced for the ammunition offence as well as the cash-in-transit conspiracy next week.

Jammed

Warren was also one of a number of gang members who were arrested by detectives who were probing the shooting of criminal Anthony 'The Mole' McDonagh.

'The Mole' was blasted five times by a lone gunman in broad daylight on the River Road in Finglas in July 2010.

He and his nephew, Kieran McDonagh, were attacked as they sat in their white Ford van after being stopped at what they thought were council roadworks.

The gunman approached the van and produced a 9mm handgun. He began firing, hitting Anthony McDonagh in the side and chest.

His nephew tried to flee to safety but was shot in the shoulder. The gunman's firearm jammed, allowing the McDonaghs to flee on foot.

After the shooting, 'The Mole' required constant '24/7' armed garda protection and he spent well over a year at Blanchardstown's Connolly Memorial Hospital before being transferred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire.

He was released from hospital in January but is permanently disabled.

To this day 'The Mole' still has garda protection as the threat against him remains "very active".